Now summon all thy fortitude, my soul, Nor, though thy blood cry for him, spare the guilty! Malek Adhel-Behold it, then! Saladin owns no kindred with a villain. Malek Adhel-O, patience, Heaven! Had any tongue but thin Uttered that word, it ne'er should speak another. Saladin-And why not now? Can this heart be more pierced By Malek Adhel's sword than by his deeds? O, thou hast made a desert of this bosom ! For open candor, planted sly disguise; For confidence, suspicion; and the glow Of generous friendship, tenderness and love, Forever banished! Whither can I turn, When he, by blood, by gratitude, by faith, By every tie, bound to support, forsakes me? Who, who can stand, when Malek Adhel fall: ? Henceforth I turn me from the sweets of love, The smiles of friendship; and this glorious world, In which all find some heart to rest upon, Shall be to Saladin a cheerless void,His brother has betrayed him! Malek Adhel-Thou art softened; I am thy brother, then; but late thou saidst, Thou hast betrayed me in my fondest hopes Thinkest thou I'm softened? By Mohammed! these hands Should crush these aching eye-balls, ere a tear Fall from them at thy fate! O monster, monster! The brute that tears the infant from its nurse Is excellent to thee; for in his form The impulse of his nature may be read; Malek Adhel-Go on! go on! 'Tis but a little time to hear thee, Saladin; And, bursting at thy feet, this heart will prove Its penitence, at least. Saladin-That were an end Too noble for a traitor! The bowstring is A more appropriate finish! Thou shalt die ! Malek Adhel-And death were welcome at another's mandate ! What, what have I to live for? Be it so, If that in all thy armies can be found Saladin-O, doubt it not! They're eager for the office. Perfidy, So black as thine, effaces from their minds All memory of thy former excellence. Malek Adhel-Defer not, then, their wishes. Saladin, If e'er this form was joyful to thy sight, This voice seemed grateful to thine ear, accede To my last prayer :-O, lengthen not this scene, Saladin-This very hour! [Aside]-For, O, the more I look upon that face, In all the brother's weakness; yet such guilt,— Such vile ingratitude, -it calls for vengeance; And vengeance it shall have! What, ho! who waits there? Attendant-Did your Highness call? My forces in the court. Tell them they come Malek Ahdel-Now, Saladin, I am not [Enter attendant.] The word is given; I have nothing more Thinkest thou, thy slumbers render quieter, That when thy voice had doomed a brother's death, The last request which e'er was his to utter Thy harshness made him carry to the grave? [Exit attendant.] Saladin-Speak, then, but ask thyself if thou hast reason To look for much indulgence here. Malek Adhel-I have not! Yet will I ask for it. We part forever; From the loved tongue which once breathed naught but kindness. Of all my youthful sports!—are they forgotten ?— Smile at my agonies! nor hear that voice Pronounce my doom, which would not say one word, Would soothe the struggles of departing life! Look on my face,-thou canst not spurn me then; For the last time, and call him— Saladin (Seizing his hand,—Brother! brother! Malek Adhel--(Breaking away)—Now call thy followers; Death has not now A single pang in store. Proceed! I'm ready. Saladin-O, art thou ready to forgive, my brother? To pardon him who found one single error, One little failing, 'mid a splendid throng Of glorious qualities Malek Adhel-O, stay thee, Saladin! I did not ask for life. I only wished Cries loudly for the blood of Malek Adhel. Pleased by my fate to add one other leaf Saladin-Thou shalt not. [Going.] [Enter attendant.] Attendant-My lord, the troops assembled by your order Tumultuous throng the courts. The prince's death Not one of them but vows he will not suffer. Malek Adhel-O faithful friends!-( To attendant)—Thine shalt, The other first shall lop it from the body. Saladin-They teach the Emperor his duty well. Tell them he thanks them for it. Tell them, too, I haste to gladden many a gallant heart, Saladin These men, the meanest in society, Call back one danger which thou hast not shared, Which thy resistless kindness hath not soothed, Or thy gay smile and converse rendered sweeter, I, who have thrice in the ensanguined field, When death seemed certain, only uttered-" Brother!" Saladin and his foes, and that brave breast That 't was to thee I owed the very breath Which sentenced thee to perish! O, 't is shameful! Malek Adhel-By these tears, I can! I am all thine! Again the day of gladness or of anguish My heart, my soul, my sword, are thine forever! [Exit.] THE HARVEST OF RUM. [See Apostrophe to Cold Water for an incident in the life of the eloquent Paul Denton, author of the following stirring lines.] In Streaming down the ages, blighting the rosebuds, shriveling the grasses, scorching the heart and blistering the soul, has come a lurid tongue of flame which, heated by the madness of hell, has hissed out the terrors of death and dropped over the earth a sea of unutterable woe. the darkness of midnight it has gathered intensity of brightness, and glared about the hearthstones, wet with the weeping of wives, mothers, and children, and bronzed the beauty of earth with the horrid cast of hell. Twisting around the altar of the church, it has wreathed the sweetest flowers that ever attempted to bloom for the adornment of heaven, and has fed death from the very waters of life; at the very door of heaven itself it has glowed with appalling madness and been almost an impassable wall of flame between misery and bliss. Dripping burning drops of agony into the tenderest depths of writhing souls, they have wailed and wept and hissed unutterable despair, and pleaded with God to blot them from existence forever. This blighting, glowing, burning, damning curse of the world is the demon Intemperance. Language has never been made that can depict it in all its hideousness. Look on that stack of skeletons that rears its ghastly form-an insult to God-high in the clouds, and shapes the whistling winds into an utterance of withering denunciation of the fiery monster that gnawed and scalded and burned and tore the mangled, bleeding flesh from those bones and tossed them into that revolting pile! Come, ye writhing, pleading, suffering souls that were robbed of heaven by this sparkling tempter, and cast the black shadow of your wretchedness upon the faces of the living! Oh, graves, give up your bloated, festering millions, and stretch them, in all their rum-scorched ghastliness, over the plains and mountain-tops! Come forth, ye torn, haggard, and bleeding souls, from the time of Noah until to-night! Hold up your bony, withered, skeleton |